Peers vs. points: 5 Box-Toppers leaders win 2025 Players Choice Awards

Shawn Plank January 7, 2026

Five Box-Toppers category leaders were also 2025 Players Choice Award winners, headlined by the surprising National League Outstanding Player selection, Kyle Schwarber, who beat out unanimous NL MVP Shohei Ohtani for the honor.

But while the players and Box-Toppers data found common ground for the top NL player, a massive disparity emerged for the game’s overall top honor. Players voted Cal Raleigh of the Mariners as Player of the Year, even though he earned just 6.0 Box-Toppers points—ranking 24th among American League batters and 139th among all players.

Box-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2025 point total declined most from 2024: Luis Gil leads list

Shawn Plank December 30, 2025

The 2024 Box-Toppers rookie leaders, Luis Gil and Shota Imanaga, both faltered during sophomore slumps in 2025, recording the two largest year-over-year Box-Toppers point declines.

Yankees pitcher Gil, whose Box-Toppers point total slid 16.4 points and Cubs pitcher Imanaga, whose total slipped 13.7 points, lead this year’s list of Box-Toppers’ big dippers.

Box-Toppers 2025 year-end All-Star teams

Shawn Plank December 14, 2025

Overall Box-Toppers points leader, Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, leads the Box-Toppers All-Star teams for the 2025 regular season.

The American League and National League All-Star teams are composed of the players with the highest Box-Toppers point totals by position in each league. In addition to nine batters in each league are the top four starting pitchers in each league and the top closing pitcher.

**Box-Toppers supports four players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the 2026 ballot: Cole Hamels, Félix Hernández, Torii Hunter and Chase Utley.**

Box-Toppers selects 4 players for 2026 Hall of Fame induction in internet writers’ ballot

Shawn Plank December 10, 2025

Box-Toppers is voting for four players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the 2026 Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) ballot.

Box-Toppers is voting for these players, listed alphabetically by last name. (To jump directly to their Box-Toppers-focused profile below, click the jump link next to their name.)

Judge, Ohtani repeat as Hank Aaron Award winners in 2025, despite lower B-T rankings

Shawn Plank November 24, 2025

Both Hank Aaron Award-winners for 2025—Aaron Judge of the Yankees in the American League and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers in the National League—won the honor for the second straight season.

However, neither player led their league’s batters in Box-Toppers points in 2025, though both ranked first in 2024.

Three of six Box-Toppers’ choices won major postseason honors and three did not. Top row players all won: Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal won AL Cy Young, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes won NL Cy Young and Drake Baldwin of the Braves won NL Rookie of the Year. Box-Toppers choices in the bottom row all lost: Skubal for AL MVP, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies for NL MVP and Athletics pitcher Jacob Lopez for AL Rookie of the Year.

Postseason awards wrap-up: Box-Toppers leaders win 3 of 6 major honors in 2025

Shawn Plank November 17, 2025

Box-Toppers’ choices for baseball’s major postseason player awards won three of six 2025 honors.

However, for three other awards announced in the past week, voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), Box-Toppers leaders were not among the winners.

Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers won 2025 Most Valuable Player Awards Thursday over Box-Toppers’ choices for the awards, Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal and Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies.

Judge, Ohtani win 2025 MVP awards, ahead of Box-Toppers’ picks, Skubal, Schwarber

Shawn Plank November 14, 2025

Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers won 2025 Most Valuable Player Awards Thursday over Box-Toppers’ choices for the awards, Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal and Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies.

Both Judge and Ohtani won their league’s award for the second straight year—Judge in the American League and Ohtani in the National League.

These four are both Box-Toppers top-ranked players and finalists for major 2025 postseason awards: Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, Paul Skenes of the Pirates, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies and Drake Baldwin of the Braves.

Box-Toppers points leaders are finalists in 4 of 6 major postseason player awards

Shawn Plank November 9, 2025

In four of the six major postseason player awards, the 2025 Box-Toppers points leader for each honor is among the finalists announced by baseball writers.

There are two awards in which the Box-Toppers leader is not among the finalists: AL Most Valuable Player and AL Rookie of the Year.

Here are Box-Toppers’ picks for major postseason awards: Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, Athletics pitcher Jacob Lopez and Nick Baldwin of the Braves.

Box-Toppers points leaders in 2025 seem likely to win 2 of 4 major postseason awards

Shawn Plank November 7, 2025

Box-Toppers’ points leaders for 2025 seem likely to win two of the four major postseason awards.

Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, who led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points, seems likely to win the American League Cy Young Award. Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, who led National League pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, is likely to win the NL Cy Young Award.

2025 MVP contenders Aaron Judge of the Yankees, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, George Springer of the Blue Jays, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies and Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal.

Why Judge, Raleigh, Ohtani don’t appear on Box-Toppers’ 2025 MVP ballots

Shawn Plank November 5, 2025

Baseball’s Most Valuable Player Award favorites did not perform well in the Box-Toppers metric in 2025.

Aaron Judge of the Yankees, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers all hit more than 50 home runs, racking up impressive statistics. However, all three were comparatively rarely the player who contributed most to their team’s wins.

**Logo source: Chris Creamer’s** **SportsLogos.Net**

Box-Toppers picks Dodgers over Orioles in 2025 World Series, plus our awards forecasts

Shawn Plank March 25, 2025

Box-Toppers picks the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the 2025 World Series, beating the predicted American League champion Baltimore Orioles.

Box-Toppers projects the Dodgers will have the most wins among all teams—108—and that National League teams will be among the most dominant. Eight of the 15 NL teams are projected to have as many or more wins as the best American League teams (89).

Box-Toppers’ 2025 daily coverage begins with spring training opener Thursday

Shawn Plank February 19, 2025

Box-Toppers coverage of the 2025 Major League Baseball season begins with the first spring training game Thursday.

Since 1995, Box-Toppers has tracked each Major League game played, tracking who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win.

A look at Box-Toppers season-by-season AL & NL pitching & batting leaders, 1995-2024

Shawn Plank February 14, 2025

A look at Box-Toppers season-by-season leaders chart for each of the past 30 seasons, including the leaders in Box-Toppers points each season among four main categories—American League and National League pitchers and batters.

Also, a look at how often Box-Toppers leaders win major postseason awards (Cy Young and Most Valuable Player), what players have led a Box-Toppers season category most often since tracking began in 1995 and what teams have had the most category leaders in 30 seasons. Also, a look at the lowest point totals to lead a season category, which includes 2024 leaders.

Box-Toppers points leaders Aaron Judge of the Yankees (left), Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers (middle) and Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal (left) also were winners of the 2024 Players Choice Awards as voted by members of the players’ union.

Box-Toppers points leaders Judge, Ohtani, Skubal win 2024 Players Choice Awards

Shawn Plank January 2, 2025

Three Box-Toppers category leaders also won Players Choice Awards for 2024 as voted by the players’ union:

Aaron Judge of the Yankees was voted American League Outstanding Player and also was Box-Toppers’ choice as AL Most Valuable Player.
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers was voted National League Outstanding Player and was also Box-Toppers’ choice as NL Most Valuable Player.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal was voted AL Outstanding Pitcher and also was Box-Toppers’ choice as NL Cy Young Award winner.

Box-Toppers 2024 year-end All-Star teams

Shawn Plank December 16, 2024

Overall Box-Toppers points leader, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, leads the Box-Toppers All-Star teams for the 2024 regular season.

Box-Toppers analysis: Why Ichiro Suzuki is not a Hall-of-Famer

Shawn Plank December 2, 2024

As baseball writers push for Ichiro Suzuki to not only be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame but to become only the second player voted in unanimously, what chucklehead will oppose that?

It pains me to say: Me. Let me explain.

Despite earning Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Awards and getting 3,000 hits, Suzuki was not the key player very often in his team’s wins. There was almost always some other teammate outperforming Suzuki in team wins. Suzuki never led his team in a season in Box-Toppers points and never even led his team’s batters.

Postseason awards wrap-up: Box-Toppers leaders win 4 of 6 major honors in 2024

Shawn Plank November 24, 2024

Box-Toppers’ choices for baseball’s major postseason player awards won four of six 2024 honors:

Aaron Judge of the Yankees won the American League Most Valuable Player Award.
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers won the National League Most Valuable Player Award.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal won the AL Cy Young Award.
Yankees pitcher Luis Gil won the AL Rookie of the Year Award.

Box-Toppers batting leaders Judge, Ohtani win Most Valuable Player awards

Shawn Plank November 21, 2024

Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, who both led their league’s batters in Box-Toppers points in 2024, won the season’s Most Valuable Player Awards Thursday.

Judge, who led American League batters with 13.0 Box-Toppers points, won the AL award and Ohtani, who led National League batters with 11.0 Box-Toppers points, won the NL award.

Box-Toppers points leaders are finalists in 5 of 6 major postseason player awards

Shawn Plank November 12, 2024

In five of the six major postseason player awards, the 2024 Box-Toppers points leader for each honor is among the finalists announced by baseball writers Monday.

Here are the five awards for which Box-Toppers top-ranked players are among the finalists:

American League Cy Young Award—Tarik Skubal of the Tigers.
National League Cy Young Award—Zack Wheeler of the Phillies.
AL Most Valuable Player—Aaron Judge of the Yankees.
NL Most Valuable Player—Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers.
AL Rookie of the Year—Luis Gil of the Yankees.

A Box-Toppers look at postseason awards—For 1st time in 30 years, our picks may win

Shawn Plank October 28, 2024

Box-Toppers points leaders have never won all four major postseason awards since tracking began in 1995.

But this year, in the 30th season of tracking, there is a chance that the four Box-Toppers points category leaders (both league’s batters and pitchers) may win the four major awards (both league’s Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards).